#HerToo: call to protect female workers from workplace harassment

For half her life, 34-year-old Cambodian factory worker Sorya endured workplace harassment, afraid she'd lose the job that supported her three children and stay at home husband if she complained.

"My colleagues would hug me from behind, and call me 'honey'," she told CARE Australia, a non profit which later intervened to introduce a workplace harassment policy in Sorya's workplace.

When a male colleague grabbed her from behind, Sorya got so angry that she "almost struck him with the scissors" she was carrying.

Oem Mom, 33, (woman pictured) sleeps on a wooden bench with four other family members in a tiny room made of scrap timber and cardboard off a dank alleyway near the Phnom Penh factory in Cambodia. Credit:Jason South

Ahead of International Women's Day, CARE Australia and other organisations around the world including Human Rights Watch are lobbying to ensure that a proposed International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention to end violence and harassment at work won't be watered down.

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On Monday in Australia, CARE will also launch a petition urging the public to pressure the Australian government to reject any attempt by employers and others to water down the convention.

It is a push to expand the #MeToo movement that started in Hollywood to improve the lives of much poorer women working as maids, in factories or on streets selling food, often in countries with no or little legal protection.

The ILO has said the new standard is designed to protect all workers, regardless of their occupation or whether they work in the informal or formal economy. It said after sexual harassment cases made headlines, it became clear that many women around the world were facing harassment and abuse to keep or land a job.

On International Women's Day on Friday March 8, the former prime minister Julia Gillard will appear on a panel discussion with the Duchess of Sussex, Annie Lennox and other female leaders on empowering women around the world.

Care Australia says if the convention is endorsed in June it will be the first legally binding international standard on the issue. It would protect about 235 million female workers.

CARE Australia's chief executive Sally Moyle said some of the world's lowest paid and most vulnerable women were at risk of being excluded from the convention if the proposals were diluted.

“The MeToo movement against sexual harassment gained momentum on film sets and in boardrooms and has trickled down to spark conversations in many Australian workplaces, which is well overdue,” she said. “But it’s important to remember not all workers sit behind a desk or even have a formal contract."

In many countries women work in factories and fields for low wages and with very little job security.

“Others work in private homes as maids or nannies, or on the street as market and food vendors."

She said this group was at risk of being left out of these new standards if the definitions of ‘worker’ and ‘workplace’ was too narrow.

“From office workers in Australia to factory workers in south-east Asia, what we all have in common as women is the right to get our job done free from violence and harassment," Ms Moyle said.

A report by CARE said workplace violence and harassment occurred beyond the physical workplace. But employers' groups had raised concerns that they shouldn't be liable for harm in this situation.

Even where there are laws, such as in India or Pakistan, they aren't implemented.

The non-profit international group Human Rights Watch is also lobbying governments to support the broader definitions.

A recent report by Human Rights Watch highlighted sexual abuse and harassment against female garment workers. This included a group of female workers in Burma who were abused when they asked for clean toilets, especially when they were menstruating. Another group of workers in India said that male supervisors sometimes made them feel uncomfortable by asking invasive and inappropriate questions about their sex lives.

Last year, a petition by CARE Australia got almost 5000 signatures and helped persuade the Australian government to vote for the binding international standards. “Workplace harassment is a global problem requiring a global response,” Ms Moyle said.